Pure Imagination
by ladyyemerald
Summary: Charlie Bucket's aunt Evey never really did grow up. And she's never been able to find someone else quite like her, that is...until Charlie introduces his new found friend Willy Wonka to his family.


**This is what our main character Evey Mason (Charlie's Aunt) looks like (without the spaces of course):**

http ://img715 .imageshack .us/img715/1733/portmanv .jpg

**Other Characters:**

Willy Wonka

Charlie Bucket

Mrs. Lily Bucket

Mr. Harold Bucket

Grandpa Joe

Grandma Josephine

Grandpa George

Grandma Georgina

**"_Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."_**

**_- John Lennon _**

"Freeze!" Charlie Bucket yelled, holding his hands out clasped together in the shape of a gun. "Don't move or I'll shoot!" Evey threw her arms in the air dramatically. "You wouldn't dare Sheriff!"

"Oh and what makes you say that Evil Evey?" Charlie asked, convincingly sounding like a sheriff. No matter how many times they played this game, it never lost its entertainment. "I've got you right where I want you, and you're not going anywhere this time!"

Evey moved her hand to her pocket and pretended to pull out a fake gun, but before she could make the firing noise, Charlie sounded off, "BANG!" he shouted. Evey opened her hand, as if to drop her gun. Her other hand flew to her chest in mock pain.

"You've shot me!" She shouted. Charlie blew the top of his fingers – blowing the smoke away from his pistol. "And you deserved it Evil Evey! You robs six banks and killed eighteen people in the past four years, the law has finally caught up with you."

By now, Evey was laying sprawled out on her back in the snow. Dramatically, she acted out her final moments of her felonious life as "Evil Evey". She grabbed Charlie's pant leg, "Please Sheriff, just...just put me out of my misery. I don't wanna bleed out right here in the middle of town, just do it."

Charlie lifted his pointed hand once more and aimed it at her head, "Good riddance Evil Evey. BANG! BANG! BANG!" He pretended to shoot three times. Evey responded by closing her eyes and dropping her head to the side. Then she lay still.

After a moment of silence, Evey's eyes flew open. "I think that was our best one Charlie!" She stood up and tackled him into the snow.

"You were great Aunt Evey!" Charlie laughed, getting up from the snow and throwing a snowball in her direction.

Evey laughed, dodging the ball of ice and then dramatically bowing, "As were you sir Charles." Charlie bowed as well, then opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound of his mother's voice. "Charlie! Evey! Time to come in for dinner." Evey's older sister, and Charlie's mother called from one of the broken windows of their rickety house.

Evey wrapped her arm around her nephew's shoulders, "Come on kid, lets get inside before you mother really shoots us." They both laughed and then Evey pushed Charlie once more into the snow. "Race you!" And she took off.

Charlie smiled, "Hey! No fair!" Then he quickly bounced up and ran after her. They both ran into the house laughing like children, though...only one of them was truly a child. While the other was 26 years old, and still acting like a child.

"Slow down, slow down." Mrs. Bucket said, smiling slightly at her family hurdling themselves through the back door. As Mrs. Bucket gave her son a hug, she raised her eyebrow at her childish younger sister Evey, who looked away from her sister's glare quickly.

"She walked around the bed of grandparents, kissing them each on their wrinkled foreheads. She stopped at her father, Joe, and proceeded to preform a small handshake that they had created when she was just ten years old.

Growing up, Evey was always a dreamer, her head always in the clouds. She could play the most pointless games for hours on end and never get bored. Her and her older sister Lily made up a new game everyday that they would play to keep themselves occupied after school until their father returned from work.

As the years grew, so did Evey and Lily. And although Lily grew out of her childhood and began to date and then finally found the man she was to marry, Harold Bucket...Evey never really did grow out of her childish ways. Of course she dated, but she could never find someone with her level of imagination, which was the reason she never did marry.

Evey knew she wasn't like other adults. She found joy in playing cops and robbers with her nephew and could escape to any number of fantasy worlds she had made up in her over active mind. But none of this bothered her. She was happy for her imagination, she loved the creativity it exuded.

However, Evey's irresponsibility that came attached to her fun-loving, childlike ways, proved to be an inconvenience to the Bucket family. She lost countless jobs and didn't have much to offer financially to the family. They urged her to marry, but every time it seemed she'd be getting close to a proposal from a man, she'd end the relationship claiming "We're just not on the same level is all."

Evey felt bad. She knew her family was poor, and she always felt like an inconvenience to them. She tried her hardest to help out around the house as much as she could, trying to make things easier for her sister and Harold. Not to mention, the four grandparents living with them.

All together, there were eight people living under one small roof. Only one of those eight had had a steady job, but he had been recently laid off when the toothpaste company he worked for decided to modernized, eliminating his job. Mrs. Bucket would do an odd job every so often for a friend, sewing, cooking, or running an errand, this would result in a small pay, but every penny helped.

The Buckets took their seats around the old, slanted dinner table as Mrs. Bucket set bowls of thin cabbage soup down. Just as the final member of the family sat down, Mr. Bucket pulled out a newspaper. "Looks like the fifth ticket has been found." He said, pointing at the front page.

The air around the dinner table seemed to grow depressing. With Willy Wonka's fifth golden ticket found, that meant no other children had the chance to receive one. "It's alright Charlie," Evey rubbed his shoulder.

Charlie gave a smile, "Oh I know, besides...it's just a candy factory tour." Though that wasn't true, and he knew it even as he spoke the words. It was a tour of _Willy Wonka's_ candy factory. This was a once in a lifetime chance. Though nobody spoke that at the dinner table, not wanting to upset Charlie.

"I know," Charlie spoke up after a few silent moments. "Grandpa Joe...why don't you tell us about Willy Wonka?"

Evey's eyes seemed to light up. The thought of a man, older than she, with more imagination than the whole of the world combined sent joy throughout her entire body. She loved hearing her father talk about Mr. Willy Wonka. He was her absolute favorite topic.

"Yes, dad...can you please?" Evey begged alongside Charlie. They both looked at him with large, expectant brown eyes. Grandpa Joe smiled, "Alright," he put his napkin down and proceeded to tell a story of chocolate and wonderment. A story of the impossible becoming completely possible. And both Evey and Charlie listened attentively.

**-W.W-**

After dinner was finished, Charlie went up to his makeshift room to work on his homework while all four grandparents returned to their bed. Mr. Bucket went out to town in search of a job, leaving Evey and Mrs. Bucket to clean the kitchen.

The duo cleaned in silence for a few moments. Evey washed the dishes that Lily would put into the rusty sink. "The soup was very good tonight." Evey tried to make small conversation. Lily was being abnormally quiet tonight, and it made Evey uncomfortable.

Evey's statement sent Lily over the edge though. She threw the last dish into the sink, splashing dirty sink water up all over Evey's blouse. Evey was too in shock to yell. She looked over to where the four elders were laying to make sure none of them had seen. "Have you lost your mind?!" She whisper yelled at her older sister.

"Evey...this is becoming too much." Lily said, her hands placed on the counter top as she looked away from her sister. "Harold's lost his job, and what little savings we have is quickly dwindling down. And you're not helping."

Evey's eyebrows knitted together in humiliation and disbelief. "What nerve! I keep your child entertained day in and day out while you keep the house in order."

"But what do you contribute to this family Evey?" Lily shook her head in exasperation. "You hanging on our heels like dead weight." After she said those words she knew how hurtful they really were. She sighed, "Evey, I'm sorry --"

"No," Evey put her hand up, "I get it...I'm worthless right?"

Lily was becoming visibly agitated, "Evey, stop it...you are not worthless, and you know that's not what I meant. You're just...just..."

Evey raised her eyebrow and held her hand against her hip, "What? Just what Lily?"

"Foolish!" Lily snapped, "You are a foolish _child_!" The sisters started at one another. "Evey...don't you want to get married...don't you want to have children of your own?" Evey couldn't find the words to speak. Lily straightened herself up a bit and grabbed a towel to begin drying the washed dishes. "But I suppose a _child _cannot raise a child."

Evey's eyes narrowed. "You are unbelievable." She pushed past her sister and grabbed her tattered old coat before walking out and slamming the door behind her. Lily stood buy the sink, tears in her eyes. What was she to do? She could either throw her sister out of the house, leaving her to fend for herself on the streets of London. Or she could let her continue to leech off of her and her husband. It was a hard decision.

"Mom, where did Aunt Evey go?" Charlie asked from behind her. Lily turned around quickly and bent down a little bit to face her son, "She went out for a walk is all. She'll be back soon." She smiled at him and ruffled his hair, "Now go get ready for bed." Charlie hugged his mother before returning to his room for the night.

**-W.W-**

Evey returned sometime later that night. Everyone was asleep, so she tried her best to tip toe across the creaky floorboards. She thought she was in the clear, but just as she past the bed of grandparents, she heard someone call her name.

She turned around to her fathers voice, and knelt down beside him. "Yes, dad?" She whispered, not wanting to wake the others.

"I heard you and Lily fighting earlier." Evey let out a frustrated sigh, "Dad...she just doesn't understand."

"I know, I know..." He said, trying to calm her. "You're an entirely different breed of person Evey. Don't be ashamed of your mind." He pointed towards her head. "Your sister is just frustrated with everything going on right now. You could try to help out though, you know..." He raised a gray eyebrow at her.

"Yes daddy, I know...I suppose I can start looking for a job." She grimaced at the thought. Grandpa Joe smiled, "That would be a good start dear, but that mind...that mind is your most precious possession. Don't ever let it go." Evey assured him that she wouldn't before kissing his forehead and saying goodnight.

Evey knelled next to Charlie's bed to say goodnight, he slowly woke up and looked at her. "Where were you?" he whispered

She smiled and lifter her pointed hand in the air a little, "I was out committing crimes Sheriff."

"Well then I'll just have to put you away again Evil Evey." He whispered and laughed, holding his own "gunned" hand up.

Evey leaned over and kissed the top of his head, then tucked him in again. "We'll see about that...goodnight Charlie." She stood up. "Goodnight Aunt Evey." He said as he rolled over onto his other side.

As she stood up and made her way to her small, lumpy cot, Evey wished with all she had that everything could be as simple as playing cops and robbers with her best friend, her nephew.


End file.
